For the first time, we broke through and really found our voice. We trended No.1 on Twitter and kept trending at 2 throughout the day. The support from celebrities and journalists and other bloggers was humbling.
Today, we have a chance to really explain our issues, but despite our desperation and fear we MUST remember that our issues are new to most people. We must trust that the report has it's own strength.
It is backed by Disability Alliance, representing over 380 charities. Scope, Mind, RNIB, Sense, National Autistic Society, ME Action Papworth Trust and many, many more endorse our report and share its concerns.
Politicans are supporting us. Lords are supporting us. We must give them every chance to hear our evidence and act on it.
The report raises some very serious issues and it is those issues we must explain.
Today, we ask anyone who read and was shocked by the #spartacusreport to wear this twibbon http://twibbon.com/join/
Can we show today that we are an electorate? That we can be seen, that we can be heard. Every twibbon is a "vote" for the #spartacusreport
If you are sick and disabled wear the twibbon.
If you realise that one day, at any moment, you too could face illness or disability and that our fight is your fight, please wear the twibbon.
If you are concerned at the lack of rigour and openness of our government, please where the twibbon
If you want us to be heard, wear the twibbon.
Keep tweeting, keep sharing and trust that if we work together, we can be heard. Sick and Disabled people can speak for themselves and for the first time, the #spartacusreport allows us to do that. Take this opportunity, take this platform and use it wisely.
I am Spartacus, and I will keep trying everything I can to protect our futures.
I'm wearing the ribbon with pride. Thanks are not enough Sue
ReplyDeleteAnother twibbon-wearer with pride! This is great news Sue, I was so happy to actually see a disability topic trending on Twitter yesterday!x
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8h_v_our_Q
i am spartacus well done sue and the rest of us why not tweet philip scolfield on this morning and ask why we are not on the show or in the papers to talk about the spartacus report
ReplyDeleteI've added the link to Pat's Petition in my name - perhaps I should have called myself 'spartacus'?
ReplyDeleteI've added the twibbon (we're @patspetition) and support #spartacusreport.
Please can everyone show their support for a pause by signing Pat's Petition?
And if you've signed it already, please share it! If every person persuaded a few more of their friends and colleagues, then we would crack the 100,000 figure needed for the government to listen.
And we all need that as soon as possible.
dear sue
ReplyDeleteyou are an absolute star! I just want to let you know that I support you 1000%, and take great heart from your site.
May it all be worth it very soon.
One thing's for certain, if we all give up, it will certainly fail...
I have just written to my MP and sent her the Spartacus report too.
Well done to you all. Have reposted your press release on my Special Needs Jungle site: http://specialneedsjungle.com/2012/01/10/report-finds-government-misled-mps-and-peers-of-disability-benefit-reform/
ReplyDeletewith links back to you and the report.
I have linked back to your site on my blog(but I always had a link to your sit on my blog anyhow...)but I have been actually talking about this campaign/report...
ReplyDeleteLooking after Mum and having to attend hospital unexpectedly I haven't been able to check if any TV/Radio programmes are taking up this subject/topic.
I noticed someone mentioned This Morning and Phillip Schofield...What about Victoria Derbyshire, Stephen Nolan or Tony Livesey on Radio 5...their programes have more time to discuss these kind of news stories that the usual output on that station.
I noticed today Derbyshire went more the usual topics that push people buttons like reports that have come out on migration and its effects on employment in the UK.
Certain presenters on LBC(station based in London)but heard across a lot of the UK on DAB) are very nasty about people on benefits and it would be good if the report could be discussed on that station to give a different slant on the way those who are vulnerable are being treated or will be qquite soon.
If you support Spartacus please sign Pat's Petition which asks the government to stop and review the cuts to the benefits and services of disabled people
ReplyDeletehttp://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968
If it was just chronic pain I would be up and about just like I used to.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Sue' s symptoms and mine are similar and although there are distinct moments that I could rush off to work and slog for an hour or two I do not know an employer that would allow entry to their building at 3 am or randomly 9pm for example.
Most work is at a set time and for a set duration. That is the foolishness of these reforms, yes many of us could work but only as and when we could do it. That has got to have been experienced by every person who has ever been ill.
Why cant the detractors understand that the next day off they take for a cold, broken leg, back injury that they get... if it lasted painfully and for ever would give them an actual idea of why we don't work as they might do.
Well said Chris...
ReplyDeleteIf I have to shop(I know I'll pay for it the next day or two)and sometimes have to rest as soon as I get home. These are not major shopping trips and can be as little as being dropped off in front of a shop by a taxi(If it can get that close to where I want to be)
I've even known me avoid going to all the shops on my list because of the extra walking I'd need to do so I will make another trip later and do without. And again these are shops close to each other.
My DLA pays for taxis to get around the town(a few streets from where I live)but it would have to be a special reason to use a taxi for a longer ride because I'd soon go through the DLA I am allowed anyhow.
I mean 7 miles(one way is approx £13)Its approx £2.50 just to travel approx 3 streets away.
I worry if I have to move from my present home thanks to the changes being brought in(I am near my Dr's surgery and the shops)but if they move me across town I may not be able afford to go out and be more of a prisoner than I am now.
And if I have to walk to get on a bus route I'll be worn out before I get there and have started a day of working.
If I have to use a taxi to get to a bus route what a carry on...
I am not fit to work and I see my condition getting worse as I get older but if forced I will certainly take time off if I am unwell and if the employer dislikes it or the DWP...tough!
And if I am forced it will have to be very easy work and I plan to only do part time...even sitting here on an office chair writing this when I come to stand up it will take me ages to straighten up and get going.
And I am always having to have a rest after doing general tasks anyone has to around the home.
Not helped by the fact(sorry to repeat myself)I am looking after Mum who is seriously ill.
To some extent being a carer for now I have some protection but when I am eventually alone heaven knows what the future holds.
And as I have no one to look after me I hate the thought that I could end up in a home rather than in my own home.
Still it does no good wondering how things will be I have live each day as it comes...
I always had compassion for the sick, the vulnerable and disadvantaged when I was fit and so I would have always supported this campaign.
Never thought I'd say it but I wouldn't like to be being born now and face what many are having to face.
I wish I'd been of retirement age as I may've missed some of the planned changes but sadly I have another 14 years before I reach that point...if I do...
Well, the media have two or three big stories to cover and they can probably excuse themselves for ignoring our report.
ReplyDeleteMilliband's speech, the high speed railway, a migration story, all so easy, lazy journalism and these stories will be around for years but the changes to the welfare system is happening now and with virtually no media watching, it will probably all go through with hardly a ripple. But its affecting so many already disadvantaged and will anyone unfortunate to need help in the future who probably at present think most on benefits are scroungers and getting loads of money...if only...